Ohio's DeWine tells GOPers he'll step down next year

Kevin DeWine, the Ohio GOP chairman who led the party to a triumphant 2010 but has been publicly warring with Gov John Kasich, told Republicans today that he'll step down next year.

"For the sake of achieving unity, continuity, and victory, I will continue to direct all my energies toward reelecting Republicans and defeating Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown’s liberal agenda in 2012," DeWine wrote in an email to members of the Ohio GOP state central committee. "Then, in 2013, I will proudly pass the torch of responsibility for our Party to whomever you, as an elected member of the State Central Committee, believes has the sound ideas, ability and vision to reelect Governor Kasich, and our other statewide office holders, legislators and local leaders."

DeWine's email amounts to something of a preemptive move before a likely April vote by the state central committee on the chairman. By signaling that he'll exit his post well before Kasich's 2014 re-election campaign gears up, DeWine could win over those Republicans who don't want to oust their sitting chair but also are uneasy about getting crosswise with their own governor.

The protracted spat between forces loyal to DeWine and Kasich's lieutentants has created a civil war in the traditionally robust Ohio GOP and has some party members fretting about what the fight could mean in the traditional battleground this fall.

In his email, DeWine touched on the raw feelings created by the dispute.

"Over the past year our State Central Committee has become the center of a highly-charged contest for the future of the Ohio Republican Party," he wrote. "Too many Members, through no fault of their own, have lost sleep, lost friends, and lost hope during this process. I believe that in order to ensure victory for 2012 this family fight must end now."

But the chairman also took an obvious swipe at Kasich in the note, writing that, the "Ohio Republican Party is bigger than any individual or elected official."

Ohio Republicans elect their state central committee members on the primary ballot and both DeWine and Kasich campaigned aggressively earlier this month to elect slates favorable to their side.

The power play has been going on for months, since not long after Kasich, Sen. Rob Portman and a new state House GOP majority were ushered in following the mid-terms.